We just released the largest-ever research study on the market for talent management suites.  This research took place over the last 18 months and is the result of an exhaustive analysis of 20 vendors, 800+ HR managers, and in-depth meetings with more than 50 organizations.  Leighanne Levensaler, our principal analyst in this area, is responsible for this tremendous effort.

A few key findings:

• This is a very big market.  We estimate the total market at $2.3 billion in 2008 (this includes software and services for compensation, performance management, learning management, succession management, and recruiting systems), and growing at almost 20% per year.  For an overview of the segments, please click here.
• There is no real “leader” yet.  As the research points out, several vendors are growing very quickly, but none command enough market share to come close to being the “leader.”  With new vendors continuing to enter (payroll providers, for example), the market will continue to expand before a real “leader” emerges.
• We evaluated the software solutions using a technique we call “capability charts” - which show you the depth of functionality, experience, growth rate, and market adoption of each product in each functional area.  What these charts show is that each vendor has some very strong areas, some strong areas, and some “emerging” areas.The three vendors with highest ratings include CornerstoneOnDemand, StepStone, and SuccessFactors.  Other important vendors include: Authoria, Halogen Software, HRsmart, Kenexa, Lawson, Learn.com, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Plateau, Saba, SAP, Softscape, SumTotal, Technomedia, TEDS, Vurv, and Workstream.
• Our research found that very few organizations have really adopted the end-to-end suite yet.  Large organizations find this very difficult, because of their large tapestry of existing legacy systems.  We do believe that the existence of these new systems is enabling people to map a 3-5 year architecture to converge and combine HR applications. 
• There truly are many breakthrough new talent management and business applications possible with these systems.  Initiatives like pay for performance, integrated development planning, performance-driven succession management, leadership development, workforce alignment, career development, etc. are all difficult to do without an integrated solution.  We clearly see tremendous business improvements possible with these new systems.

We have many many case studies to share in this area.  We look forward to your comments in this exciting new area of talent management.

You can listen to Leighanne’s overview here.  Download the study overview here.  Purchase the research report here.

If you would like to review some of the other materials on this market, please visit our talent management suites research program or join our membership program.